


Phantoms

by Stephicness



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Drama, Freeform, Injury Recovery, M/M, Prosthesis, Rehabilitation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 02:42:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16845574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stephicness/pseuds/Stephicness
Summary: What was it like recovering from such a painful injury, Ravus?





	Phantoms

The interaction between Ardyn and Ravus is remarkably more sincere than how one would interpret it. At least, Ardyn would try to be sincere. Throughout the two thousand years he’s live, Ardyn has become hardened to feelings of pain or remorse, unable to feel the sense of suffering for a long time coming. Thus, as Insomnia fell, Ardyn felt no pity on the place he had once called home. Another wasteland to add onto the many that he had witnessed fall. The line of Lucis will fall, and he would make damn sure it would.

And yet, the tragedies that occurred to those who aided him – those he has been close with in their cause for Lucis’s demise – are ones that Ardyn was never truly able to push aside. The incident of Ravus’s pride gaining the upper hand and taking away a part of him: his arm. Ardyn didn’t hear news of the Tenebrae prince’s injury until sometime after Ravus was evacuated from the crown city. The prince was foolish to let his pride get the better of him, and yet, there was a sense of worry that lingered over Ardyn. Seeing the shattered child be raised into a cold and broken man… That was no life to live. Ardyn knew that well.

When the commotion settled about Ravus’s injury, it was time that Ardyn paid him a visit. A bundle of white roses in his arms as he visited Ravus’s bedside as the prince remained silently staring out the window as Ardyn came in. Not a greeting or a glance from Ravus, as to be expected, even when Ardyn chimed in with his usual greeting and his ‘I’ll just invite myself in’ personality.

The silence was  _unbearable._

The chancellor sat by Ravus’s side, legs crossed as his hands laced themselves tightly. It had been such a long time since he last had to comfort someone. It was nerve-racking, even for someone as charismatic as Ardyn. Ravus Nox Fleuret, a man that had already lost so much… The chancellor didn’t know how to comfort such a man. And needless to say, starting a conversation with ‘At least you have a weight off your shoulder’ was by far the  _worst_  way to go about it.

Ravus’s eyes slowly turned to Ardyn, gaze narrowed in a cold glare. Silent for a moment before his raspy voice growled at the chancellor.  _“Are you done?”_  Ardyn was silenced, but even as Ravus frowned at him, the chancellor remained. Ardyn hadn’t felt this social awkwardness in quite some time. Ravus knew that Ardyn was good with words, and that he would always find something to say. But when the chancellor was unable to say anything more, the commander let out a heavy sigh, gaze falling to his lap as his hand reached up and gripped onto the scarred stub of where his arm once was. “I’m sorry… I just… I wish to be alone.”

And so, Ardyn did the exact opposite of what any considerate person would do. He stayed. The chancellor did little to even so much abide by his words. Instead, the chancellor set his hat down on the nightstand before he threw off his boots and coat. Ravus raised an eyebrow at Ardyn. It wasn’t until he noticed the chancellor climbing into the bed with him that Ravus began to struggle, swatting at the chancellor with aggression and hostility.

“I told you to leave me! I need to be alone!”

“Daemons prey on those who are isolated, dear Ravus.” Ardyn went to Ravus’s side, pulling the prince close to him. Awkward to hold a man with a missing limb, struggling to both punch Ardyn and to break free of him, but Ardyn didn’t let go of his hold. His eyes narrowed as his fingertips gently brushed over the damaged and scarred skin that plagued the prince’s body. It caused Ravus to shiver. The damaged nerves weren’t supposed to feel anything, and yet it felt like feathers. A sensation that burned into his skin worse than the flames the Ring of the Lucii brought upon him. Yet Ardyn refused to let the prince go. He merely held his arm around Ravus’s waist, as he gently massaged the prince’s tense shoulder where the phantom pains lingered. “But I’m here. I will make you whole again.”

The prince felt his eyes sting, unable to fight off the hold around him. Unable to resist him anymore. No longer wanting to. Since his return, he received nothing more than ridicule from Niflheim’s emperor and generals. And yet here the chancellor was, offering him solace? He didn’t wish to accept it. But something about the idea of being whole once more was a tempting thought. Ravus grit his teeth as his nails clawed into the arm around his waist and tears fell from his heterochromatic eyes.

 

* * *

 

 

Surgery was successful. The infusion of the Magitek technology into a bionic prosthetic for the ex-prince of Tenebrae had been applied and equip rather flawlessly, though there was surely a few technicalities that occurred with it. The phantom pains had yet to cease, the prince finding himself waking up at night in cold sweat from the nightmares and the sudden pain that surged in his shoulder. The prosthetic was something that would hopefully mend the pain, but alas, to little avail. More frustration seemed to follow with it as Ravus underwent physical rehabilitation to tend to his injury. Simple exercises of raising his arm, gripping small objects, all with the power of a mere thought. A feat of the Magitek technology and by far one of the most miraculous. To give a man the will to control his autonomy once again.

Not without trials and tribulations, of course. Glass after shattered glass scuffed the inside of his prosthetic palm, The joints where the knuckles could bend were also dented already, paint wearing down to the metallic violet underneath it. Underneath the claw-like digits were pieces of fabric and threads tangled together and stained with remnants of human flesh. His own mostly. For something so new, the Magitek arm had undergone quite the strain within its first weeks of testing and rehabilitation. And Ravus disliked every single moment of it, every mark left behind after such grueling tests and procedures. And it still wasn’t good enough yet. He was hardly able to lift his arm up without his mental concentration being strained. He wasn’t able to life up his sword to train for combat and war now that he was appointment the high commander of the Niflheim army. He wasn’t even allowed to play the piano anymore, a hobby he used to use to cope with for years now. All he was able to do was leave a mark of his behind on everything he touched.

He felt useless. Like a broken doll, only meant for the eye to look at and shun.

The commander dug his claw onto the back of his hand, sweat beading down his forehead just in the sheer attempt to focus on tearing his claw into his flesh. Dammit… Dammit all…!

“You know, doing that to your other hand will soon make it so that you’ll need another arm.”

Ardyn’s words, once again, did little to comfort Ravus. Same as it was a few weeks prior, Ravus turned to face Ardyn with a distinct frown across his face.  _“Are you done?”_

Ardyn laughed in response this time, waltzing over to the prince as he leaned against the desk along with Ravus. “Perhaps… Are you?” A gentle gesture as Ardyn reached out, taking the prosthetic gauntlet into his hands and turning palm upwards. “Does the pain help you feel whole again? The damage that you do to yourself?”

The commander was silent, turning his gaze downward as he submissively hung his head.

“I would hope not. Humans are far too fragile, dear Ravus.There’s only so much pain they can take before there’s nothing more than a spiteful shell of a man.” The chancellor brought the metallic limb up towards his lips, kissing the palm of it as golden eyes watched the commander carefully. “Don’t strain yourself, dear Ravus. It would be a disappointment if you were unable to show the others just what the high commander can do.”

The clawed gauntlet shook as it tried to support itself on its own. Slowly, Ardyn removed his hand and watched as Ravus’s hand shook, inching towards the chancellor’s face. Gently.  _Gently…_ Alas, to no avail, as his gauntlet left thin red streaks over Ardyn’s jaw and neck. Ravus hung his head in defeat. Dammit… First his king betrayed him, then his sister, and now his own body betrayed him. The commander grit his teeth, but soon was pulled into the embrace of the chancellor as Ravus’s shoulders trembled from the stress and weariness. Ardyn’s fingers laced with the Magitek arm. His eyes narrowed slightly at the claw before he brought it back to his lips once more.


End file.
